SPIDER!!!

 I love him.

Camille did not.

What do you think of our nifty little friend?

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year has been more stressful than usual for me.  You see, this year Alan and I announced to our families, and now friends, that we are pregnant.  Baby Johnson is estimated to arrive on July 10, 2011.  We're thrilled for our little one to come. 


Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

October Wedding

Mom has been so busy lately with photography.  She's done multiple wedding and family groups this summer in addition to her recreational photography.  My Mom is so good with letting me tag along to weddings and family groups to "help" her, though she helps me more than I think I could ever help her.  Either way, we took pictures of Bryan and Deanna's wedding yesterday.  Here a few shots that I am quite pleased with.

 

 

In addition to the usual wedding photos there were a few little families who wanted pictures of their little ones all dressed up.  I loved taking pictures of these kids, they were pretty dang cute.

 

 

The wedding was beautiful and the people were really easy to work with.  I have learned that I need to practice my presence when working with a large group (10+ people) and that you can never get enough practice when working with kids. 

Jackson Hole

Oh boy, what a week.  After our holiday adventures, Mom, Heidi and I went up to Jackson Hole for the IFA Conference.  IFA was kind enough to hold a tribute to my father and another employee who had passed away this year, and they invited our family to join them for it.  The tributes were beautiful, I am impressed with how many good people work for IFA, which is a good company. 

We joined the IFA staff and their spouses at Bar J Wranglers for a classic chuck wagon dinner and western music/humor. It was a blast.

These are the pleasant men who entertained us.

We participated in the spouse activity (While the employees are off at a trade show, IFA sends the spouses on an adventure of their own) which was a trip to the National Wildlife Art Museum.  It was an interesting museum, not a lot of variety in artistic styles, types of animals, or even mediums for that matter, but i still enjoyed it.  Museums are always fun.

After our "activity" we three Dudleys waled to down town Jackson.  We walked through the stores, took pictures of every plant we walked past (Heidi is getter her second degree in Horticulture and is excited to collect pictures of plants), and got a great three hour walk in.  

Then began the next phase of our journey: finding the great photo shots in Jackson Hole.  We spent Thursday night hunting moose with our cameras.  However, we only found a herd of Buffalo and more flowers.  It was rather enjoyable to witness a sunset at the Tetons.  

Friday morning began early for us, we raced the sunrise to Mormon Row.  I'm rather pleased with the results of our efforts:

What a lucky day to shoot here!  Buffalo Models!

Look at my sister go!  I've never known her to be this adventurous before.

This is a tribute to my brother, Greg.

Mom quietly contemplates her next shot.....

Look at them go.

I do believe we enjoyed ourselves.  The sunrise was beautiful!  I'm always amazed by the beauty of sun rays passing through thicker parts of the atmosphere.  Something so simple yet peaceful and astounding.  

The trip was fantastic.  I'm glad I had a chance to be alone with my mom and sister for a few days.

Thanks again to all who made this trip possible, mainly Mom and IFA.

Fourth of July Festivities

As is custom in the Dudley house hold, our 4th of July weekend was spent working for the Riverton City Recreation Department.  We scooped poop in the city parade, helped with Movie in the Park (we showed Monsters VS Aliens this year), helped mom and Rodney put on another fantastic race, and made snow cones and cotton candy for the rest of our Saturday.

Here we are working the finish line for Saturday's race!

Monday was spent with the Johnsons!  We went to a parade with Sharon, Annette, Cambrie and McKenzie.  I believe this was Cambrie's first parade with candy being thrown, so Alan helped her catch the candy.  It was rather enjoyable.

 McKenzie Looked Adorable in her patriotic outfit.

Annette is such a good mom. 

 Cambrie loved all of the royalty floats.

 Bethany is a pro-candy-picker-upper!

 Even though Tate was smaller than the other cousins, he did a good job with catching candy.

 My attempts to join in with the candy fun.

 There are the nieces enjoying their winnings.

After the parade we met up with the Stratford clan at their cabin!  I finally played a whole game of pinochle on my own...well, with some coaching.  We went for a short "hike" to the stream and enjoyed being with family.

 Here is our stream.

Here is a rock in our stream.

Here is our team of adventurers.

And this is an accidental shot of Matthew that Alan liked.

On the way home Sharon treated us to Farr Ice Cream!  The creamer was built in 1920, if I remember correctly, and is cute as can be!

Happy Holidays!

Lucky Birthday

Thanks to everybody for their birthday wishes!  We celebrated my 21st birthday on Monday June 21.  It was a nice day: Alan and I went to work, I got home just before five to learn Alan had come home early because he wasn't feeling well, I tried to take care of him, we went to Alan's parents' house and had dinner and Angel Food Cake with his mom, and then we came home.  The end.

I like low key birthdays, personally.  My favorite part of the day was sitting down with Alan and the birthday present he gave me, an illustrated guide to prehistoric animals, and reading together for the last hour or so of the day.

The only thing that could have made the day better is if my parents had been there, too.  Or a trip to the zoo, that always makes the best days!

In reality though, I did spend Saturday with my mom.  She and i took a photography class on portraiture at Wheeler Farm.   It was splendid fun. Thanks again, mom!

Happy Summer Everybody!

Playing "Catch-Up"

It's amazing what can happen in the space of a month.  I'll try to at least hit the highlights:

--Alan's finished with the spring semester!  It's wonderful to have us both working full time and then have the evenings to do what we wish.

--Mom has been running like a beast.  She took the Masters division down at the Thanksgiving Point Half which gave her a $300 dollar prize check. Then, last weekend, she won her age division at the Ogden Marathon even though she had torn a muscle at mile 14 which cost her 15 minutes of time.  Good job, Mom.

--Annette and Jeremy's family came out for Alysha's, Jeremy's sister, wedding.  It was fun meeting McKenzie and playing with Cambrie again.

--Sharon and Kelly's house is nearly finished.  I know Alan's excited to help move everything into their new home.

--I've earned a promotion and now get to make tacos for about 40 hours a week. I'm grateful for the hours.

--We bought our first washer and dryer set. 

--Camille has left us for Alaska.  It sounds like she's enjoying her time as a kayak guide.

--Alan's cousin Daniel married his Leah this weekend.  Their wedding, and reception, were beautiful.  Congrats to the two of them.

--One of Alan's other cousins, Steven and Jacee, were sealed on the same day of Daniel and Leah's wedding.  What a fun day for the Stratford Clan.

I'm not sure what else should be said, but I'll let you know as soon as something comes up.

Photoshoot

Camille was kind enough to ask me to hold a "photo shoot" for her last Monday.  I was in desperate need of practicing with my new camera and am grateful she was patient with me.  Here are a few of the pictures we took:

These would not have turned out nearly as well if I didn't have such a fun subject to work with.

Thanks again, Camille!

One Year Ago

As a side note, a year ago today Alan and I went on our first date! We went to the morning session of General Conference together. It's been fun to reminisce.

Conference Weekend

This year Conference Weekend is quite special since it is joined with Easter Weekend!  I must confess, though, as newly weds with limited finances we are having a low-key Easter.  Alan and I have been listening to conference on our radio, since we don't have a TV, as we both sit on the couch under the same blanket.  I surprised him this morning with breakfast in bed.  It's nice to spend the weekend with each other.

Riverton Half Marathon

Today was the second annual Riverton Half Marathon!  Mom is the race director for Riverton City and she has put so much work into this race, and it paid off!  With about 450 runners registered, this is the largest race Riverton has hosted.  Alan, Ryan, Camille, and I all drove to Riverton to help along the course.  Helping with races is always such a rush for me, there's so much to do and so many people to talk to.  I love it so. 

Riverton's Half will always hold a special place in my heart because that's where Alan and I met in person for the first time!  So now it's official, we've known each other (in person) for a whole year now, and we have been married for 99 days.  Yay!

Three Weeks Later

It's been over three weeks since Dad passed away.  I still can't believe he's gone.  Strange, though, even when a family is grieving over the loss of somebody dear to them life continues on.  People still have to go to work, they still laugh and tease, the world hasn't changed much other than Dad isn't here. 

Thanks to all of your support and prayers, we really do appreciate it.  I know our family will be just fine, we'll just be missing Dad at the same time.

Dino

This week has taken a sudden turn to an experience we weren't expecting to experience for another few decades.  Mom and Dad were on a Mexican Cruise this week, courtesy of IFA, when Dino had another heart attack and died on the ship.  My poor Mom flew home from Mexico to tell us children the news in person.  I Never thought I would see my Mom as a widow this early in life.  It's so hard to see her go through this, but i hope we are helping by being with her.  Dad has to finish the cruise, which won't end until Sunday.  The Mortuary said the earliest we could hold a funeral is next Friday. 

I miss Dino so much.  I think we are all still in a state of shock and reality has not fully set in yet.  I feel like he's just on a business trip or something and he'll be home soon.  I know he had a higher calling and that the Lord must be putting him to work in the afterlife.  It's so comforting to know he has friends there. 


I love you Daddy, I miss you.

Better Late Than Never

Seeing as most of the extended family keeps blogs to keep in touch, I thought we might give it a try. Alan and I have been married for nearly two and a half months now. It's amazing how time flies now that the wedding day has passed. Alan is currently attending USU as a Computer Science Major and works at SDL here in Logan. I am simply working this semester, hopefully I can go to school over the summer.

Well, here's the start of a blog. Hopefully I will remember to update it regularly.

Fare thee well!